A PRECOCIOUS HYACINTH

[The classic conceit as to the origin of the Hyacinth was that Apollo
raised it from the blood of his beloved Hyacinthus, as a memorial to that
victim of the envious Zephyrus.]

AS Spring advanced, else why her envoys here -
These nuncios of bloom proclaiming nigh
Her matin primal in the bloss'ming year -
Coyly her bulbs from beds unfrosted peer,
The coquette, Hyacinth, tempting Boreas' sky?

Too swift this herald spurns her season's speed -
The sphere wherein her Vernal kin aspire,
Yet fit disowns a taint of Winter's breed -
Scion of stock so fair - so pure of seed,
Was never offspring of Hibernal Sire.

Why seek to rise when no sweet colleague can,
To greet thy suitors ere they sanguine call -
A pretty marplot in the flow'ring plan,
Outstepping Flora's ranks to win the van -
To lead them captive in thy luring thrall?

Thy parent stem was reared, as poets sang,
Apollo's grief to symbol yet assuage -
To speak his stricken love - allay his pang;
Flushed with that beauteous Spartan's blood she sprang
Formed of that martyr to Zephyrus' rage.

Linked then to glad florescent life assume
Aurora's right to mark the Vernal hours,
The dawning of the roseate year relume
That weds the aureate to the floral bloom,
The sun's affusions to thine azured flowers.